Albert Belle, perhaps the most productive
big-league hitter of the 1990s, doesn't know whether he will be able to play baseball
again.

Although he is pleased with the progress he has made
this winter in rehabilitating a degenerative and arthritic right hip, Belle faces
two big tests next month. Two tests will determine whether one of the game's most
feared hitters will have to lay down his bat prematurely.

One
test is a team physical he must pass when he shows up for the Orioles' spring
training camp in Fort Lauderdale.

"If I pass it, I play
baseball. If I don't pass it, I don't play baseball," he said. "It's pretty much
cut and dried."

But even before then, the 34-year-old
slugger must pass perhaps an even tougher test  his own. Sometime around
the beginning of February, he will start swinging a bat again and discover whether
his hip pain returns, a pain that was so severe last summer it once left him in
tears.

"Overall, it's a lot better," he said of the
condition that caused him to sit out 20 games late last season. "But there are
some days it feels good, and some days not so good.

"There's
a possibility my career could be over. That hasn't been ruled out. You just never
know. You don't know how it reacts until you start hitting and are under baseball
conditions."

On Oct. 15, Belle began spending three
days a week working out with a physical therapist near his home in Scottsdale,
Ariz. His right leg, which he admits had no strength and "was pretty much dragging"
the latter part of last season, is much stronger now. The severe pain has not
returned, although he does feel discomfort occasionally, especially when he is
not moving around. A cross-country plane trip, for instance, can be difficult
for him to endure.

Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday
he shows up at his therapist's office at 9:30 a.m. and begins by riding a stationary
bike. He then stretches the muscles in the hip area, and finishes by doing hip-strengthening
exercises until 12:30 p.m.

"It strengthens the entire
hip area, working on different muscles, doing a lot of balancing and low-impact
intensity to get some lateral movement," he said. "I strengthen the hip, the hip
flexors, the hamstrings, the glute, pretty much everything above the knee to below
the belly button ."

Before the hip started bothering
him last summer, Belle was the type of player who rarely missed a game. He played
in at least 158 games in each of the previous four seasons and briefly, after
teammate Cal Ripken's streak ended, led the major leagues in consecutive games
played. But in early July, Belle started feeling pain in his right leg.

He
says he now regrets that he didn't have it examined during the All-Star break.
But after the three days of rest, it felt pretty good again, and he played without
sitting out until the beginning of September. Around that time, though, he says
he began noticing that balls he thought he had hit hard enough to leave the park
didn't even carry to the fence.

"I knew then that something
wasn't right," he said.

He finally had it checked out
and was told there was bursitis  some inflammation of a muscle above the
buttocks  and arthritis. Belle had two of the worst months of his career
in July and August, hitting only four home runs and batting .230. Something was
wrong, and it all culminated on Sept. 3, after the Orioles flew from Cleveland
to Minnesota.

"I couldn't sleep," Belle said. "I was
probably sleeping 30 minutes at a time. I was in pain. It didn't matter how I
tried to sleep, it was killing me. That was the worst it got. My leg was numb.
I was pretty much in tears all night. By the time I got to the ballpark the next
day, I was limping around."

He hasn't felt that much
pain since, especially after working out this offseason.

"If
it gets to that extreme case again, my career might be over, because that was
pretty unbearable," he said.

Belle visited noted sports
physician James Andrews in Alabama. He also talked with former baseball and football
star Bo Jackson, whose career was ended by hip problems.

"My
situation compared to his is minor," Belle said of Jackson, who has had three
hip replacement surgeries. "His was major hip surgery."

Belle
says surgery is not even a consideration for him at present. When he visited Andrews
for the first time last fall, he was unprepared for the news the doctor gave him.

"When
Dr. Andrews told me there was a possibility I might never play again, I was pretty
shocked," Belle said. "I had to sit back and think about what was going on. I
might never play again. On the other hand, I played 11 years and had a pretty
good career. Baseball's been pretty good to me. So I have no gripes."

Belle,
who spent eight years with the Indians and two with the White Sox before joining
the Orioles in 1999 , now seems at peace with the fact that his career might be
in jeopardy.

"I realize I wasn't going to play baseball
forever," he said. "I certainly wasn't going to be trying to play way past my
prime. I figured that if everything went right and I stayed healthy, I could play
a long time. But playing 162 games a year, it beats up your body."

The
five-time All-Star has a .298 career average with 381 home runs and 1,239 RBI
 a résumé that should gain him consideration for the Hall of Fame, especially
if his career is able to endure for several more years.

But
over the years, he says, all the sliding, running and stress he put on his body
took its toll on his hip. Even if he can play again, he is uncertain he can play
the outfield full time, although he would like to. When he came back last September,
he served as the designated hitter. At this point he doesn't know what to expect.

"If
my leg reacts great, I want to play in the outfield," Belle said. "But that hasn't
been determined yet. I'm assuming that decision will pretty much be left up to
me if I'm going to play the outfield or not."

This winter
has been different from past winters for Belle. He has had to rehab rather than
merely strengthen his body. He has had to cut the number of days he can play golf
 his other athletic love  from almost daily in years past to three
times a week.

"If I played seven days a week now, that
would pretty much kill it," he said. "I'm just keeping the hip capsule loose.
As long as there's some activity, I'm not going to hurt it."

He
also has been going to professional basketball and hockey games in Phoenix and
engaging in a new passion  chess  by playing regularly online. Belle
acknowledges his two years with Baltimore have not gone as well as he had hoped.

When
he joined the Orioles, he thought he would be playing for a playoff-contending
team. But Baltimore has finished fourth in the AL East in both of his seasons
with the club, and that grates on him.

"I would be a
lot happier if we were winning more games than losing," Belle said. "I definitely
don't like being in the position where you lose more than you win. That doesn't
make anyone happy, the fans coming to the park or the players. It makes for a
long season. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth."

He
also believes that the onus of the team's fortunes unfairly have been placed on
his shoulders.

"It's been tough being in Baltimore the
last two years," he said. "You have to remember out of the 25 players on the roster,
only one player's been labeled to have expectations. They haven't put expectations
on anyone else, and I think that's been pretty unfair to me.

"When
they say it's been a mistake bringing Albert Belle here (something owner Peter
Angelos suggested last year), well, one player can't save the franchise. It takes
25 players, or 30 over the season. One pitcher can't do it, and one player can't
do it."

Belle, playing on a five-year, $65 million contract,
has a total no-trade clause that would expire after the upcoming season . Would
he entertain thoughts of a trade?

"It's going to be
tough to trade someone with a bad hip," he conceded. "I'm going to be 35, and
with a bad hip, that's pretty risky. But you never know. Someone might take a
chance."